Immigrant removal centre criticised

Children are being incarcerated for too long at an immigration removal centre and becoming distressed and scared, prison inspectors have announced.

The average length of time children are being held at the Yarl's Wood centre in Bedfordshire has almost doubled from 8 to 15 days in the last two years, an HM Inspectorate of Prison report found.

The children being held were receiving "inadequate" education and had little to do after school, said inspectors.

Some families had been transported to and from the centre in caged vans and inspectors said they found evidence that disabled children, who should not have been detained, had been held at the centre in the past.

The report also criticised the lack of activity offered to the adult detainees and found that many were bored and spent their days watching television and films.

A private company, Serco, took over the management of the centre in 2007 and inspectors found that there had been some improvements and the buildings were "brighter and better decorated" since their last visit in 2006.

Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons said: "Yarl's Wood is to be congratulated on sustaining reasonable performance in many areas, despite the upheavals of the change of management and reduction in staff numbers. However, significant concerns remain, particularly the lack of activity for detainees, which is a failure that we have identified across the immigration detainee estate. Even more worrying was the plight of children detained for increasing periods of time and with insufficient provision to meet their needs. Yarl's Wood must seek to meet these concerns, but they are ultimately issues for the UK Border Agency, which must urgently address them."

A UK Border Agency spokesperson said: "We're determined to treat children within our immigration system with fairness and compassion, that's why the majority stay in detention for a week or less.

"Often children are only detained when their parents try to frustrate the removal process - detention then becomes necessary to maintain a robust but fair asylum system. Those with no right to be in the UK must return home, and last year we removed a person every eight minutes.

"The UK Border Agency will continue to seek alternatives to detention, and in the next Parliamentary session will adopt a legal duty to promote children's welfare."